


Family Ties

by wintershelter



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s03e03 What Lies Beneath, Familial Love, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 21:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14246121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintershelter/pseuds/wintershelter
Summary: Alec finds Jace after the events of 3x03 and tells him he needs to speak to Maryse. Wherein, Maryse tells Jace about her sentencing and the two of them have a heart to heart.





	Family Ties

**Author's Note:**

> We were totally cheated of the Lightwood family dinner. I knew Jace and Izzy were gonna flake but I would have loved to see a big Lightwood family scene. I miss them all interacting. Some of my favorite scenes of the series are between Jace and Maryse specifically, so I wanted to write about Jace's reaction to Maryse's news.

Jace rubbed his eyes tiredly as he heard a knock on his door. He felt like he'd only gotten an hour of sleep. He reactivated his stamina rune before he was slowly moving out of bed to answer the door. He hadn't gotten far when the door was being wrenched open and someone was striding in.

Jace jumped at the suddenness of it, his brain taking a minute to realize that it was Alec and not Jonathon who was standing at the foot of his bed.

“Where've you been?” Alec demanded.

Jace sat up in his bed, still trying to rouse himself. “What do you mean?”

“Clary and Izzy have been worried sick. You went awol on your mission with them last night and didn't answer any of their calls.” Alec explained.

“I-” Jace started, but then stopped. He remembered the mission and he remembered seeing Jonathon and fighting him but after that he couldn't remember anything. Since he was back in his bed he had made it back sometime. “Sorry.” He said, throwing off his blanket to go grab a shirt.

“Holy shit, Jace.” Alec exclaimed. “What happened?”

Jace looked at Alec in confusion before noticing he was staring at his right arm. Jace looked down and saw he had a red circular burn on it. He stared at it for a long moment, not knowing where it came from.

“Jace, what happened last night?” Alec asked, concern in his voice.

Jace took his stele out of his pocket and drew a quick _iratze_ on the burn. “I don't know.” Jace said, grabbing a black shirt and putting it on.

“What do you mean you don't know.”

Jace dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. “It means I don't know, Alec. I can't remember what happened last night. The last thing I remember is fighting Jonathon and then nothing.”

Alec took a step closer. “Wait, you fought Jonathon?”

Jace nodded. “He was there at the club, like I thought he would be. Did Clary and Izzy get him?”

“No. And neither of them are entirely sure Jonathon is the Owl.”

Jace shook his head vehemently. “No, it's definitely him. He was there, Alec.”

Alec gave him a long look that Jace didn't have the energy to read. “Okay, I believe you.”

Jace let out a shuddering breath, feeling relief someone had believed him. He ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I missed dinner with Mom. How'd it go?”

Alec's face fell suddenly at the mention of their mom. “It went fine."

Jace was tired but felt himself become more awake at Alec's blatant. “What happened?”

Alec looked pained. “Look, I promised her I wouldn't say anything. She wants to talk to you herself.”

"Talk to me?" Jace asked. "About what?"

"I can't say. You just need to go talk to her."

“Is she here?”

“Yeah, she's in my office.”

“Okay.” Jace said, quickly grabbing a pair of jeans from his dresser and pulling them on. “I'll go talk to her now.”

Alec looked at Jace's sluggish movements as he sat down on the bed to put on his shoes. “Are you sure you're okay? You look exhausted.”

Jace lifted his face to give Alec a cocksure smile. “I'm fine, quit worrying.”

Alec blinked at Jace in disbelief. “You just said you couldn't remember what happened last night and you look like you're going to keel over any minute.”

Jace finished lacing up his boots and got to his feet. “I haven't been sleeping too well recently. I'll be fine once we get Jonathon.”

Alec held out a hand to stop Jace from leaving. “Why haven't you been sleeping? What's going on?”

“Look, Alec, can we do this later?” Jace asked exasperatedly. “I need to go talk to Mom.”

Alec relented with a terse nod, dropping his hand down to to let Jace leave.

Jace moved past him and exited the room. Jace let his shoulders relax once he was out of Alec's sight. He was more bothered about gaps in his memory than he would care to admit and he knew he needed to find a solution to his dreams about Jonathon, but he wasn't going to put that stress on Alec right now, not when he could see that something was wrong with Mom.

Jace made it to Alec's office door, knocking courteously before entering.

He saw Maryse sitting on Alec's couch in a dark green dress.

“Jace,” She said, standing up to greet him with a hug. “It's good to see you.”

“You too.” Jace said, hugging her back. “Sorry, I couldn't make it to dinner. Izzy, Clary and I had to take care of something.”

Maryse pulled back with a nod. “It's quite all right. Though it looks like you haven't gotten any sleep. Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, I'm fine.” Jace said, shrugging off her concern. “Alec said there was something you needed to tell me.”

Maryse sighed, dropping her eyes. “Yes. It'd be best if you sit down.”

Jace did as she asked, sitting down on the couch as Maryse did the same.

“What's going on?” Jace asked a bit nervously.

“As you know, I was involved in the Circle in the past, but because of recent events with Malachi and Valentine, the Clave decided to reopen the cases of former Circle members, myself included.” Maryse explained softly. “They found me guilty of my past transgressions and have ruled that I be deruned.”

Jace's mouth dropped open. “What?” He choked out in disbelief, looking for the lie in Maryse's words but finding none. “No, no, no. They can't do that.”

Maryse gave him a sad smile. “They can and they are.”

“But, that's not fair.” Jace argued.

“It is fair, Jace. My crimes in the Circle were severe and so the punishment itself is too.”

“But, you did all that decades ago. You were my age when you were in the Circle.” Jace shook his head. “You haven't been associated with Valentine in years. Malachi was directly working for him but you weren't.” Jace argued.

Maryse reached out to cup Jace's cheek. “They know all this, but no amount of arguing can change the Clave's mind, you know that.”

Jace was silent as he took all the information in. He lifted his gaze to meet Maryse's eyes. "When is this happening?"

“Next Thursday.”

Six days.

There were only six days until Maryse was going to be deruned.

“There must be something we can do to lessen your sentence.”

“There isn't and it's okay Jace." Maryse reassured. "I've made peace with it.”

“You shouldn't have to.” Jace said, feeling his eyes fill with tears, exhaustion and stress causing his emotions to bubble to the surface. “This isn't fair, Mom. You don't deserve this.”

“Oh, Jace.” Maryse pulled him into a hug and Jace felt his tears break free and spill down his cheeks. Maryse rubbed a soothing hand up and down his back and Jace clutched her back tightly.

“How can you be okay with this?” Jace asked, voice rough with emotion.

Maryse stroked Jace's hair. “Because I am guilty of what they accused me of. If this is the way they want me to pay for those crimes, then I accept it.”

Jace felt his heart constrict _._ The deruning process was only done in extreme circumstances and was a horrible and painful process. It wasn't fair that Maryse was going to go through it to pay for things she had done when she was just barely past her teenage years.

“I'm sorry.” Jace said.

Maryse hushed him. “It's okay, Jace.”

Jace let himself be held, upset that he was the one who needed comfort when Maryse was going to be put through literal torture in the next week. When Jace felt he had gained his composure a bit, he pulled back.

Maryse looked at him and frowned a little at his expression, taking his hands in hers. “It'll all be okay, I promise.”

Jace knew those words were just for his benefit and that nothing was further from the truth, but having his mother say those words to him like she had so many times before, had him slightly believing them.

He gave her a small smile, giving her hand an affirming squeeze.

Maryse tucked a piece of his hair behind his ear. “I love you, Jace. You are one of the best sons a mother could ever ask for. I'm so proud of everything you've accomplished and I'm grateful everyday that you came into my life.” She said warmly, eyes shining with unshed tears.

Jace swallowed past a lump in his throat. “I love you too, Mom. No matter what.”

Maryse reached forward, pulling Jace in for another hug. Jace soaked in the contact again, feeling embraced by his mother's love and feeling a bit of the stress lift of his shoulders because of it.

When Maryse pulled back, she got to her feet and ran her hands down her dress to smooth out the wrinkles. “Well, I imagine you have a lot to do, so I best be off. Please take care of yourself, you look exhausted.”

Jace stood up, giving her a nod. “I will. Take care of yourself too.”

Maryse gave him another smile. “Of course. I'll see you later, Jace.”

“Bye, Mom.” Jace said, watching as Maryse turned and saw herself out of Alec's office.

The second she was out of sight, Jace collapsed back onto the couch, resting his head in his hands. Out of everything he expected Maryse to tell him, being deruned wasn't one of them. She had said there was nothing they could do, but he couldn't just sit back and do nothing as she was stripped of her marks.

Maybe he could contact Imogen and see if there was anything she could do to lessen Maryse's sentence.

Jace must have closed his eyes and drifted off as he thought about what to do because the next thing he knew Alec was gently shaking him awake.

“I'm awake.” Jace said, shrugging off Alec's hand.

“Right.” Alec said skeptically. “You should really go back to your room and get some sleep. You look awful.”

Jace huffed out a breath, getting to to his feet. “Thanks, but I don't think I can after hearing Mom is going to be deruned.”

Alec leaned back against his desk. “I haven't been able to stop thinking about it either. I've been trying to think of something I can do to lessen her sentence.”

It took Jace a moment before he remembered what it was he was thinking about before he had drifted off. “There may be something I can do.” Jace said, moving purposefully to Alec's desk to grab a sheet of paper.

“What are you doing?” Alec asked, watching as Jace started writing.

“I'm writing an appeal directly to Imogen. Maybe she can commute Mom's sentence.”

“She's the Inquisitor, isn't it just as likely she ruled for Mom's deruning?”

“She might've.” Jace said with a half shrug, lifting his gaze to look at Alec. “But considering she has a soft spot for me, it's worth a shot to ask her for clemency. It just seems ridiculous that Mom is being punished for things she did decades ago, especially since she's been nothing but loyal to the Clave since.”

“You don't need to tell me. I don't understand the ruling either.”

Jace was quiet for a moment as he finished crafting his message to Imogen. When Jace had finished his appeal, he marked the paper with a _fire_ rune, watching as it burned up in front of his eyes, on its way to Imogen.

“Thank you, Jace.” Alec said sincerely, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Jace gave Alec a smile. “I don't know if it'll do any good, but I can't not try.”

Alec smiled back at him, patting Jace's arm, before turning to sit down at his desk. “Now, go get some rest.”

“I've got to go talk to Clary and Izzy about last night.” Jace protested.

Alec frowned. “Jace, you were literally asleep in my couch just a few minutes ago. They can wait.”

“But the Owl-”

“Jace,” Alec said sharply. “The Owl has only been attacking at night. Clary and Izzy are fully capable of working on this without you for a few hours while you get some rest. Maybe a little sleep will help jog your memory about what happened last night.”

Jace looked like he wanted to fight Alec on the subject further but relented. “Fine.”

“I mean it, Jace." Alec warned. "I better not see you anywhere other than your room for the next few hours.”

Jace raised an eyebrow. “Is that an order, Mr. Institute Head?”

“If that's the only way I can get it through your thick skull, then yes, consider it an order.” Alec pointed at the door. “Now go.”

Jace gave Alec a two fingered salute before leaving.

He felt bone-tired and he knew it had shown in his demeanor seeing as both Alec and Maryse had noticed. He knew he couldn't keep going on stamina runes for much longer. He needed help, but he knew the only way he would be able to get it was when they caught Jonathon.

Jace let out a sigh and made his way to his bedroom.

Between his dreams, the Owl, and now Maryse's sentencing, everything was spiraling out of control and there seemed little he could do to stop any of it.

Once Jace made it to his room, he fell onto the bed, not even bothering to take off his shoes before letting his eyes fall closed. He felt so tired he could barely keep his eyes open. He knew it wouldn't be long until his dreams shifted towards Jonathon.

He only hoped he could get some sleep before then.


End file.
